Fox should have stuck a fork in “That 70s Show” a few years ago.
And I’ll third (or fourth?) that “Wings” was a pretty good show. I heart Thomas Haden Church!
How? I watched three or four episodes without a single good laugh.
I would also add another distinction for sitcoms that, while not artistic successes, were tremendously popular in terms of viewership. The aforementioned Beverly Hillbillies is an example of this. During its run, it was one of the most critically blasted and derided shows on American television but it was still a ratings juggernaut. Until the last couple seasons it was on, I believe it was either the top rated show or somewhere in the top five (someone please check). It also spawned a number of other ratings-successful rural-themed comedies like Green Acresand Petticoat Junction. I think what the OP of this thread is mainly about those mediocre-to-wretched shows with modest-to-borderline ratings that somehow stay on the air for five or more years (e.g., the previously discussed Gimme a Break). Basically, the type of program that, when you stumble across while reading TV Guide or channel surfing, makes you exclaim, “That thing’s still on the air? I thought it was canceled years ago.”
It doesn’t qualify. I think it was on the air for no more than two or three seasons.
You’re right. It falls short, but only by one season. It ran from 1988 to 1992.
How? By being popular. It might not have been to your taste (nor to mine, for that matter), but there’s really no mystery regarding why it lasted as long as it did.
Before Cosby hit big, papers were printing articles on the death of the sit-com, etc. It became the centerpiece for N.B.C.'s revival and the network’s means for showcasing the shows in the time slots following Cosby – Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court, A Different World (legitimately in the “lame” column), Wings, as well as dramas such as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law. All those shows owe a portion of whatever success they had to Cosby
Yipes, I can’t believe no one has mentioned The Nanny starring Fran heh-heh-heh Drescher.
Whoo … taking a look at the 1984 network lineup – full of absolute dogs as far as comedy goes, many of them aging series on their last legs – The Jeffersons, Alice, Kate & Allie, Three’s A Crowd, AfterMASH, E/R (the C.B.S. sit-com; not the N.B.C. drama), Charles in Charge, Facts of Life, It’s Your Move, Who’s The Boss?, Benson, Webster, Diff’rent Strokes, Gimme a Break.
The only ray of hope in there is the N.B.C. Thursday night lineup (Cosby, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court) and Newhart on C.B.S.
The only “must-see” shows were dramas – St. Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues, Remington Steele, V. Other dramas included Murder, She Wrote, Knight Rider, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, The A-Team, Riptide, The Fall Guy, Dynasty, Hotel, Magnum, P.I., Simon and Simon, Knots Landing, Dukes of Hazard, Dallas, Falcon Crest, Hunter, Miami Vice, T. J. Hooker, Love Boat, Fantasy Island.
Pret-ty bleak.
But, hey, reflecting a level of investment in creative output not reflected in today’s network schedule. So, who knows?
It didn’t run for 5 years (only 3 1/2), but I’ll mention it anyway: Nurses (a spin-off of Empty Nest and grandspin-off of Golden Girls). Total dreck that wouldn’t go away.
I thought it was a pretty decent show for a big part of its run, but the Drew Carey Show probably deserves special Rasputin mention. It actually kept shooting for a full season after everybody thought it had been cancelled.
This is one of those shows that I call stealth shows. Since I don’t actually watch much TV, it’s fairly easy for me to delude myself into thinking that a show that isn’t getting a lot of network publicity has been cancelled. Drew Carey was one of those. According to Jim is another one I was suprised was still alive. Suck City…
Between the Cosby Show, Cheers, Friends and Seinfeld, NBC owned Thursday evenings for most of the 1980’s and 1990’s. They usually had successful sitcoms on at 8pm, 9pm and a big drama at 10pm (first LA Law and then ER). And Thursday nights are when the movie studios want to advertise the movies for the weekend, so there’s a lot of money to be made then.
So one point is that both the Cosby Show and Seinfeld were enormously profitable for NBC on Thursday. BusinessWeek ran an article in the last year of Seinfeld that said the show was worth something like $500 million in revenues to NBC over the course of the year. That’s why they offered Jerry Seinfeld $5 million an episode or $110 million in total to keep it going for one more year (but he turned the money down).
Another point is how few successful shows NBC was able to groom in the 8:30pm and 9:30pm timeslots. Both of those slots had lots of carryover audience from the previous and upcoming shows, and yet so many of the shows in those slots were dreck. Anyone remember Jesse or Caroline in the City?
Hey, Hey! I liked Caroline in the City! Well at least before they made the curmudgeon into the love interest. Bah!
They do that every so often. I’m pretty sure there was another spate of it just recently, with Frasier and Friends wrapping up last year and Everybody Loves Raymond this year. They’ll probably do it forever.
The Simpsons have been pretty horrible for the past five years.
I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the worst episode of The Simpsons is better than ninety percent of what’s on television during the rest of the week.
I’d agree with that. I’ve never seen an episode of The Simpsons that didn’t make me laugh or at least smile really big at some point, but I’ve seen plenty of episodes of Yes Dear, Golden Girls or King of Queens caliber of shows that were total “what else is on” half-hours.
Okay, how about Too Close for Comfort, starring Ted Knight, a cartoon cow, and an assortment of heaving double-Ds? Believe it or not, this actually ran for five years.
Ah, yes. And it’s the show that launched Jm J Bullock. For that alone, it should rot in Hell for eternity.
It’s deteriorated recently, but one of the worst sit-coms to last five years or more?
As bad as Full House?
IMHO, that’s like saying seinfeld deserves to be put on this list because the last year (except the final show) pretty much sucked in comparison the rest of the years.
The reason? The assortment of double-Ds. Didn’t one of those chicks end up in a porno or something?
I wouldn’t count Saved by the Bell-it was on on Saturday mornings after cartoons and was marketed to the pre-teen set. So yeah, it seems stupid to us, but not for its target audience.
I was going to name My Two Dads, but that only lasted about three years.
What about Perfect Strangers, the show that spawned the horror that was Family Matters? I HATED Larry. Hate hate hate hate hate hated him.
eleanorigby-you’re thinking of Empty Nest-that was a spinoff of The Golden Girls-the doctor was their neighbor. Blanche was always trying to get into his pants. (Duh).
The funny thing is, I used to watch an awful lot of these shows. While I admit all of them were awful, some of them I still would watch, just because they were so bad and silly. Sort of like pixi stix for the brain.
Sampiro-what’s the dirt on Ben Savage? I used to watch BMW religiously in high school because I had a massive crush on Will Friedle. (He’s now doing voice work in cartoons ala Mark Hamill-Batman Beyond, Kim Possible).
Ahh, Ok. I get it. Sorry for the misunderstanding.